Mutable Instruments Clouds User manual

indicated by a red LED.
Rate Resolution Channels Buffer time
32kHz 16-bit stereo 1s
32kHz 16-bit mono 2s
16kHz 8-bit µ-law stereo 4s
16kHz 8-bit µ-law mono 8s
Changing audio quality erases the audio buffer.
Beyond granularization...
Setting the DENSITY and TEXTURE knobs to their ex-
tremes activates variations of the granular processing al-
gorithm. Grain position, size, and rate are then optimized
to generate a continuous stream of sound.
Blending modes
Press the Blending mode/Audio quality button re-
peatedly to select one of the four blending modes. The
current mode is indicated by a green LED.
Dry/wet balance
The BLEND knob and its CV input control the balance
between the original signal and the granularized signal.
Crossfade/rotation
The BLEND knob and its CV input progressively swap the
position of the left and right channels. The L output will
thus crossfade from L to R, and the R output from R to L.
Feedback
The BLEND knob and its CV input control the amount of
output signal reinjected back into the input of the mod-
ule. This mode is capable of very abrasive tones!
Reverb
The BLEND knob and its CV input control the amount of
digital reverberation applied to the output signal.
Audio quality
Hold the Blending mode/Audio quality button for
one second, then press it repeatedly to select the
recording quality. The current quality setting is
Clouds
Texture synthesizer
Saving and loading buffers
Up to 4 frozen audio buffers can be saved and reloaded.
Saving
1. Hold the Load/Save button for one second.
2. Press the Blending mode/Audio quality button
repeatedly to select one of the 4 memory slots. The
selected slot is indicated by a blinking red LED.
3. Press the Load/Save button to confirm.
Loading
1. Press the Load/Save button.
2. Press the Blending mode/Audio quality button
repeatedly to select one of the 4 memory slots. The
selected slot is indicated by a blinking green LED.
3. Press the Load/Save button to confirm.
If you press the Load/Save button by mistake, do not
press any button for a few seconds and the module will
return to its normal state.
microlooper/scratcher
pitchshifter/timestretcher
microlooper with diffusion
pitchshifter/timestretcher
with diffusion

About Clouds
Clouds is a granular audio processor. It creates textures
and soundscapes by combining multiple overlapping,
delayed, transposed and enveloped segments of sound
taken from an audio recording buffer.
Clouds differs from other granular Eurorack modules
in that it focuses on the real-time processing of audio
sources from your modular system itself, rather than
the playback of pre-recorded samples from a storage
device. It rewards the freezing, fragmentation and disso-
lution of the unexpected instant, rather than the careful
planning of what might very well not come.
Installation
Clouds requires a -12V / +12V power supply (2x5 pin
connector). The red stripe of the ribbon cable (-12V side)
must be oriented on the same side as the “Red stripe”
marking on the board. The module draws 10mA from the
-12V rail and 120mA from the +12V rail.
Online manual and help
The full manual can be found online at
mutable-instruments.net/modules/clouds/manual
For help and discussions, head to
mutable-instruments.net/forum
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Front panel
Controls
A. FREEZE button. This latching button stops the record-
ing of incoming audio. Granularization is now performed
on the last few seconds of audio kept in memory in the
module.
B. Blending mode/Audio quality button. Selects one of
the four output blending modes or one of the four audio
quality settings. Please refer to the following sections.
C. Load/Save button.
D. Grain POSITION. Selects from which part of the re-
cording buffer the audio grains are played. Turn the knob
clockwise to travel back in time.
E. F. Grain SIZE and PITCH.
G. Audio INPUT GAIN, from -18dB to +6dB.
H. Grain DENSITY. At 12 o’clock, no grains are gener-
ated. Turn clockwise and grains will be sown randomly,
counter-clockwise and they will be played at a constant
rate. The further you turn, the higher the overlap be-
tween grains.
I. Grain TEXTURE. Morphs through various shapes of
grain envelopes: square, triangle, Hann window. Past 3
o’clock, activates a diffuser which smears transients.
J. BLEND control. Refer to the next section.
K. Indicator LEDs. By default, they work as a vu-meter.
Soft-clipping occurs when the last LED is on. When
modifying settings, a green LED indicates the blending
mode; a red LED indicates audio quality.
Inputs and Outputs
1. FREEZE gate input. When the input gate signal is high,
stops the recording of incoming audio, just as latching
the FREEZE button would do.
2. TRIGGER input. Generates a single grain. By moving
the grain DENSITY to 12 o’clock, and sending a trigger to
this input, Clouds can be controlled like a micro-sample
player. A LFO or clock divider can thus be used to sow
grains at the rate of your choice.
3. 4. Grain POSITION and SIZE CV inputs.
5. Grain transposition (PITCH) CV input, with V/Oct
response.
6. BLEND CV input. This CV input can control one of the
following functions: dry/wet balance, channel crossfade,
feedback or reverb. Learn more about blending modes
in the next section.
7. 8. Stereo audio input. When no patch cable is inserted
in the right channel input, this input will receive the sig-
nal from the left channel. Both channels are processed
independently, it is thus possible to record textures from
different sources and crossfade or mix them.
9. 10. Grain DENSITY and TEXTURE CV inputs.
11. 12. Stereo audio output.